Chapter Text
Are you really content to stay like this?
The voice seemed to follow Yuuki through his dreams. Into the swirling, suffocating darkness, pressing him down, looming over him.
Will you continue to deny your true self?
Fear...hatred...pain….
To deny me?
He snapped awake with a gasp, scrambling back off an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. “What? Where...what happened?”
A stab of pain in his side brought everything crashing back down. Defying Kamoshida. The beating. Being found by Amamiya and brought back to this place. The awful conversation with him and Sakamoto. Revealing his cowardice and complicity in Kamoshida’s plans.
“You okay?”
Yuuki flinched away from the hand, belatedly realizing Amamiya was just trying to help him up to his feet. He took it with a muttered thanks, slowly standing up on shaky legs.
Dammit. When was he going to stop being afraid? Kamoshida overshadowed everything he did, everywhere he went. Why couldn’t he just stand up to the man, like Amamiya and Sakamoto?
“Sojiro made breakfast, if you’re hungry.”
He nodded. He spotted his uniform draped over the back of the chair—Amamiya had somehow gotten the blood out of his turtleneck—and hurried to get dressed after the other boy went downstairs.
Not that it mattered. He was pretty sure Amamiya had seen every bruise, new and old. Along with that doctor, who’d said Yuuki was lucky not to have any broken bones after the beating he’d taken. But of course, Kamoshida knew how to avoid permanent damage like that...or how to inflict it.
At least he hadn’t fought back, so the man didn’t have an excuse to hurt him the way he’d hurt Sakamoto.
He felt a flash of guilt at that thought, as he slowly made his way down to the cafe’s main floor. Should he really feel grateful for something like that? For being too cowardly to openly defy Kamoshida?
“Here. Wasn’t sure you’d have much of an appetite, but this should be easy on your stomach.”
Yuuki settled in at the bar, whispering his thanks to the man behind it. Breakfast was simple enough—miso soup and plain rice—and the silence was almost comforting as he and Amamiya ate.
Morgana—the cat—was staring at Yuuki intently and meowed when he glanced up. He looked to Amamiya, who shot him a smile. “He says you’re looking better today.”
“You really think your cat can talk to you,” Yuuki said.
“Of course he can.”
Morgana meowed in agreement.
Yuuki managed a grin, turning back to his breakfast. In truth, his stomach was so knotted up with nerves that he couldn’t even manage to eat half of it. He knew Kamoshida would be watching for him this morning, and if he showed up with Amamiya there’d be hell to pay.
“I’d better get going,” he finally said as he pushed the plate away. “I’ll, um, see you in school.”
“I’ll go with you,” Amamiya replied.
“No!” Yuuki cleared his throat, trying to steady his voice. “It’s better if I go alone.”
“Someone hurting you, kid?” the man behind the bar asked.
He shot the man a fearful glance. “I’m fine. I’ll just...go on ahead.”
Yuuki rushed out the door, then realized his mistake. He barely remembered getting to the cafe last night; he had no chance of finding his way back to school without asking for directions.
Amamiya came up beside him and tapped him on the shoulder. “It’s this way.” He easily fell into step with Yuuki, leading him toward the Yongen-Jaya train station.
He kept his head down as he followed Amamiya. First to the train, then through the connection, then finally to the station closest to Shujin, where Sakamoto was waiting. Yuuki rushed out of the train first, ignoring Sakamoto’s greeting, and hurried to get to the school ahead of the other two.
“No luck, huh?” Sakamoto asked, as he and Amamiya followed Yuuki.
“It’s fine.”
Yuuki tried to ignore them, tried to push his bruised body to move faster. After last night, Kamoshida would probably be looking for him. He’d be gloating over it. Rubbing it in that Yuuki couldn’t do anything to protect himself; that he was just a slave in Kamoshida’s kingdom. Hell, he shouldn’t have even told Amamiya and Sakamoto what had happened. Kamoshida would be able to tell that he’d talked to someone, and he’d face an even more dire punishment after school.
It was all over. All because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. All because he’d tried to stand up to Kamoshida.
His phone beeped, and Yuuki pulled it out of his pocket to frown at the screen. No message from Kamoshida, but there was a strange new icon.
Will you continue to deny your true self?
The voice from his dream was echoing in his thoughts now. Yuuki shook his head to try to clear it, jamming his phone back into his pocket. His fingers brushed the screen as he did, but he didn’t notice.
He was nearly at the gates to the school. He felt like he could already see the teacher looming over him, sentencing him to another foul task, another painful punishment.
“King Kamoshida,” he muttered. He utterly deserved that nickname. He was a king. A tyrant. The man who ruled over Shujin with an iron fist.
“Mishima, get down!”
“Huh?” Yuuki belatedly realized that something was different. This wasn’t the way to Shujin Academy. This was...where the hell were they?
“Dammit!” Sakamoto—wearing a strange outfit and a skull mask—knocked Yuuki to the ground. “Just stay down, Mishima! Did you activate it?”
“I thought you did.” Amamiya was there...also in a costume and mask. “Mona?”
This was all too much. Yuuki scrambled to his feet to run away, only to pull up short as a monster swiped at him.
“I said stay down,” Sakamoto snapped, yanking Yuuki back by his collar. “You’re not ready to fight these things.”
Was that a sword? Why did Sakamoto have a sword? And Amamiya...were those guns? They were high school students. Why—how—what was happening?
“You need to stay back. Let Skull and Joker handle this.”
And now there was a cat monster. Talking to him.
Yuuki managed to shove the cat monster away and dodge Sakamoto’s grasping hand. “This isn’t real,” he shouted, hearing the blind panic in his voice. “This is...I’m still dreaming!”
“Trust me, it’s real!” Sakamoto managed to shove him to one side, bringing his sword up to block another attack from a monster. “Just let us protect you, all right?”
He shook his head and turned to run. This couldn’t be real. There had to be an exit somewhere. None of this made sense...it couldn’t be happening.
“Mishima!”
He didn’t hear the warning in time before dark claws swiped at him. Yuuki tried to dodge back, but a hideous monster caught hold of his arm and throat and pulled him up to jeer into his face.
How long?
“Let me go,” he protested, kicking at the monster, fighting to pry the hand off his heart.
How long will you deny your true self?
A burst of pain shuddered through his system, stabbing into his mind. It burned white-hot, like something was being purged from his soul.
Are you truly satisfied with the way things are? With living in the prison built by those who have betrayed you?
Yuuki screamed as the pain washed over him. His head felt like it was going to split open, and he managed to thrash himself out of the monster’s hands. He knelt on the floor, hands clutching at his hair, as the voice continued to echo through his mind.
If you want to end this torment, to seek the revenge that you so desperately desire, then let us form a contract.
His heart was pounding against his ribs now. He’d already defied Kamoshida once...could he do it again? And again? Could he really stand up for himself and break himself free of that man’s poisonous control?
I am thou, thou art I.
There was something on his face. Yuuki reached up, felt the smooth edges of a mask. He had to rip it off. “My true self,” he panted. “Whether it’s justice or vengeance, I’ll make that man pay for what he’s done!”
He dug his fingers in around the edge of the mask. It stuck to his skin, peeling away flesh as he ripped it off. There was blood in his eyes, blood on his hands, light exploding out of him as he threw his head back with a single cry.
“Dantes!”
…
Yuuki didn’t remember much about what happened next. He remembered fighting, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sakamoto and Amamiya, calling on a strange power he’d felt inside him.
Then the world had melted around them, revealing a side street close to Shujin, and he would have collapsed to the ground if Sakamoto hadn’t been there to hold him up.
“What...what happened?” Yuuki finally asked. His body hurt, and it wasn’t just the bruises Kamoshida had left on him. There was a deeper pain there, like something had finally been ripped away. A deep wound had been revealed, brought out into the fresh air where it could finally begin to heal.
“You awoke your Persona.”
Yuuki lifted his head...and stared at Amamiya’s cat. “Did you just talk?”
“You get used to it,” Sakamoto commented. “Eventually.”
Morgana twitched an ear and sat back on his haunches. “Looks like you’re finally ready to face your true self,” he commented.
“My true self?” Yuuki shook his head. “What does that mean?”
“We’ll explain later,” Morgana said. “Right now, you’re all late for class.”
Sakamoto yelped, shoving Yuuki toward Amamiya. “We’d better not go in together. I’ll go first, you can tell your teacher you were helping Mishima.”
He didn’t wait for a reply and took off toward the school, leaving the other three huddled in the alley.
Amamiya draped one of Yuuki’s arms across his shoulders and steadied him with an arm behind his back. “You ready?”
“If people see us together, they might think you beat me up,” Yuuki replied as they started walking. “Kamoshida won’t stop them—he’ll probably encourage it.”
“So what?” Amamiya shrugged. “We know the truth.”
Yuuki nodded slowly. Maybe that would be enough, at least as a start.
He felt like a new core of strength had awakened in him. Maybe he really would be able to stand up to Kamoshida now. Maybe it wasn’t all useless.
Maybe it was worth the fight after all.